An Interesting Look at AYP

I was surprised to read that only 28 percent of Florida schools made adequate yearly progress (AYP) this year, so I went searching to see how Minnesota compares. According to the MN Dept of Ed, 82 percent of our schools were making AYP as of October ’05. That did not surprise me so much.

The Bush vs. Bush article is amusing – apparently now Jeb is saying that the Florida rating system is more meaningful than his brother's AYP system... because it makes the FL schools look much better. Watching how one brother has to distance himself from the other in order to make excuses for his state's poor performance is pretty entertaining! While I do suspect that the whole AYP system is rigged to produce failure and open the door for vouchers, I also believe that it has done some good in forcing schools to take a hard look at who’s learning what. The problem is not the tests or the standards, but the sanctions. We need more help, not less!

I would love to see a state-by-state breakdown of AYP rates. Bet the blue states do better.

Check out the Florida numbers:
http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/ (Bush vs. Bush: AYP vs. FCAT)

And the Minnesota numbers:
http://education.state.mn.us/mde/Data/Data_Downloads/Accountability_Data/NCLB_AYP/index.html